Love is a very strange thing. Getting up insanely early this morning to watch the Royal Wedding in my PJ’s, I couldn’t help thinking about all the ways that we structure and regulate love in modern society, mostly because of the institution of marriage.
Most of the world agrees that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, that it can only be between two people, that it's nicest when it's accompanied by a big cake and a bigger white dress.
This is strange when we think about the ways that love is often fluid, changeable and crazily life-altering.
People don't fall in love for rational reasons, but they often enter into a legal contract because of it.
Yet, the institution of marriage has been described as “the only contract that you can’t get out of without the state’s permission.”
Yet, even given the bitter backstory with the groom’s own parents, I couldn’t help thinking that Kate has just married a job that she can never really leave.
In many ways, it’s the same thing as Bella becoming a vampire in the Twilight series. One ceremony with the magical prince, and you can never, never, never go back to your old life.
Poor Kate, I hope it works out for her.
Of course, I want to believe in the fairy tale for her. Yet, she might be wise to remember Sarah Ferguson. She was the center of the last royal wedding of this scope…and she wasn’t even invited to this ceremony.
